Fitton lingered at Athlone for a few weeks and then retired, first to Dublin and then to England. Fitzwilliam announced that Connaught would soon be quiet, for there would be no one left to resist the rebels. The unlucky President was not to be blamed, for he 'could not work miracles as Moses did.' After one more attempt to give trouble, which was frustrated by Perrott's energy, Clanricarde's sons--the MacIarlas, as they were called--saw that there was no fear of punishment, and that they might as well sue for mercy. They told the Deputy that they were in a wretched and damnable state; and this was true, for they were very vicious young men. They knew not where to turn, and they offered to give themselves up and be good subjects for ever if only they might be assured of the pardon which they feared to ask. Their father was powerless to control them, and he supported their petition on the ground that despair might 'make them follow young counsels.' He himself was ready for any service, or even to go to prison, and would welcome any president that had no property in Connaught, 'excepting always Sir Edward Fitton, who sought my blood.' A good salary, he added fairly enough, would be the best defence against corruption. Believing that Fitton would traduce him, he sent an agent to England to enter a cross case. The late president's prayer was so far heard that the young Burkes received no immediate pardon. In the meantime Athlone was held by a scanty garrison. In one of the long nights just after the new year Art Maguire, who had the watch, arranged with some of the O'Kellys to betray the castle. A ladder was planted and thirty-four men scaled the walls unobserved, when a chance noise startled the guard. The assailants called out in English to make way for the Earl of Clanricarde's sons; but they were worsted in the scuffle and jumped off the battlements, several legs being broken. 'If the devils had not made great shifts they had broken most of their necks.' Fitzwilliam attributed the result entirely to God's providence. The Irish had been two hours inside the castle and were probably waiting for reinforcements, very likely for the graceless young men in whose names they professed to act.[224] [Sidenote: Ormonde goes to England.] [Sidenote: Fitzmaurice still at large, 1572.]